This year (2018) approx. 30 employees of the Dutch Council for Refugees will be on a learning journey to apply SALT in the groups they (will) facilitate.

One group in Amsterdam started in February with home visits to newcomers who have received the keys to their new homes a couple of months ago.

The city council provided housing to 86 refugees (children included) from 12 countries who live among the residents that have been living in Amsterdam or in the Netherlands for a much longer time, some of them from migrant families (historically one out of three residents of Amsterdam is born abroad). Now everybody got to get to know each other, this is a new neighborhood that was built up literally from the water, an artificial island was created by the city of Amsterdam. All residents are 'in the same boat' as to familiarizing themselves with the area and with their neighbors. That is how we came up with the name Common Ground for our project.

Now that everybody has furnished their houses, it is time to start having conversations among each other and stimulate refugees to join a community meeting. Regular community gatherings have been taken place for quite a while; they started even before the houses were built. As a result of a lot of people (volunteers, employees from various agencies etc.) teaming up, this was the first time that newcomers from Syria and African countries attended the Meet-up. One of the residents (Winny) said, while introducing her neighbors from Nigeria and Ethiopia: "Once you know your neighbors, you feel safe where you live". Winny managed to voice shared hopes and common concerns: many people agreed and nodded their heads.

Thanks to the amazing SALT team and the spontaneous support from community workers it was a great success, and a starting point for more encounters and conversations to establish our Common Ground, our shared humanity.

The new neighborhood in Amsterdam was built up from the water: